Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! Interrupt mesmer is finally getting buffed to where it may be strong enough to be meta. Anyone think they know what the best build for interrupts is going to be assume the am a live stream traits are the only ones available? I made some pretty broken specs for all of the classes and think pvp balance might shift towards glass profession outside of specializations.

6/6/6/0/0/0 is going to be the best lockdown spec unless the interrupt trait new to the CHRONO tree is amazing

Chaos Archangel.5071:

6/6/6/0/0/0 is going to be the best lockdown spec unless the interrupt trait new to the CHRONO tree is amazing

I will prepared to disagree with you in time Chaos… XD

Hey Chaos, how happy are you that with IP being baseline and just investing in Domination alone, Shatterlock is pretty much a bread-and-butter aspect of lockdown builds now?

In my opinion, IP being baseline is exactly what so many builds needed to touch on viability. This is a great change for all builds lacking that extra bit of damage and survivability that made shatter reign over them.

Shatterlock (6/2/0/0/6) was only held back because of the lack of DE, but even having only IP was enough to nearly “one-shot” most zerker specs with a single BlurredFrenzy-> 2-clone shatterburst combined with an interrupt. With the ability to spec 6/6/0/0/6 I see the ability to make a perfect blend of Shatter/Lockdown, since you can now grab Power Block/Confounding/Halting along with having iPersona, Deceptive Evasion, and that new Shatter grandmaster in illusions that combines all the old shatter traits (Reflect on Distortion, AoE Diversion with large radius, ect.)

Speaking of which, we can now FINALLY trait Imbued Diversion with iPersona! That right there makes for some deadly 0-clone AoE daze shatters, meaning halting strikes, AoE weakness (thank you Anet since you gutted Debilitating Dissipation) on interrupt, AND putting skills on a 15s cooldown regardless of weapon choices.

What makes shatter stand out, isn’t DE; its iPersona. With that being baked into Mesmer’s core the only thing separating 4/4/0/0/6 and 4/4/6/0/0 is Decoy. (Standard tPvP Shatter can take Blink, Decoy, and Portal. Standard tPvP Interrupt usually grabs Blink, Portal, Mantra) When the specialization patch drops, shatter builds will be getting a nice buff from the new Mental Torment (+50% damage if opponent isnt using a skill.. which is still rather lockdown esque) AoE Blind on shatter and the aformentioned Master of Frag.

Shatterlock will likely take Master of Frag and Mental Torment, but Mental Torment still requires you to inflict daze/stuns.

The new uh.. “standard” lockdown will be 6/6/6 with Confounding Suggestions, Power Block, and Chaotic Interruption. This means each interrupt will inflict:

• 8x Vuln (if a daze was used)
• Weakness
• Moderate Damage
• Grant 5x Might + Random Boon
• Immobilize + Blind/Cripple/Chill
• +15s cooldown on skill.

15 frickin’ seconds hurts. Especially when you consider how much potential for AoE interrupts we have without including Master of Frag. Now ontop of that, you have to deal with weakness? Weakness cuts the afflicted players damage down considerably, but what has me even more excited is that it stunts endurance (dodge ability) regeneration; making it easier to land shatters. Weapons like Greatsword, Focus, Shield and now even Pistol (assuming every 2 interrupts refreshes Magic Bullet) are going to be devastating in team fights.

But remember that right now its hard not to look at things from the perspective of this current meta. Everyone is getting buffs and new interesting abilitys/mechanics, so its hard to say exactly how powerful this all will be in the future.

Really good points. I’ve been swapping back and forth between playing shatter and playing lockdown, and I’m excited that the two will be getting blended.

66006 is what I am most looking forward to, as it will be amazing for both power and hybrid builds, also depending on weapons. I feel like 66600 and 66006 could provide some really fast-paced combat. At the same time, I think Chronomancy will bring in a lot more control.

Regardless of the buffs that everyone is getting, I think it will mostly be a factor of making sure stability isn’t so prevalent. That makes me worried about revenants. As I recall, it looked like that had a stability on dodge trait.

I will use 66006 for my Mes in Expansion. It is a “Phantarupt” Base and stronger playstyle compared my Mesmer today.

6 Power:
All Choice are standard to raise the damage.
- Empowered Illu – Coz i am using GS, S-P
- Shattered concen
- Power Block

6 Precision:
I feel kinda weird about my choice in this trait. TOok both Weapon CDR
- Duelist discipline
- Blade Training (To abuse 3,5s immob/6s… If i still get good Condi Dura. Combine with Illu Cele from Special trait line)
- DE

6 Special:
To make Decoy 32s, Faster CD coz Illu Cele and AOE interupt F3 from Master frag. Might to strengthen the Interupt dmg
- Compounding Power
- Phantasmal Haste
- Master Frag

Chaos Archangel.5071:

6/6/6/0/0/0 is going to be the best lockdown spec unless the interrupt trait new to the CHRONO tree is amazing

Interrupt trait new to the chrono tree confirmed to be amazing. Slow on interrupt, 30% crit chance on slowed enemies, and slow on every 3rd crit. With fury you can have nearly 100% crit chance, while keeping up near perma slow.

The slow trait is an awesome alternative, and I’m fairly certain a chronomancer lockdown build can net more damage, but the tradeoff is steep. You lose either Dom, dueling, or chaos. You can go Dom, Chaos, Chrono for pure lockdown but..

I still think vanilla mesmer will have it on the lockdown front. You won’t even need to buy the expansion to have a monstrous lockdown build. I really like the chrono traits but I’m glad they made the other traits competitive enough that its an actual choice and not a requirement. Odd as it sounds, I’m glad Chronomancer doesn’t entirely outshine Mesmer in either shatter or lockdown.

Though… Dat gravity well..

Chaos Archangel.5071:

The slow trait is an awesome alternative, and I’m fairly certain a chronomancer lockdown build can net more damage, but the tradeoff is steep. You lose either Dom, dueling, or chaos. You can go Dom, Chaos, Chrono for pure lockdown but..

I still think vanilla mesmer will have it on the lockdown front. You won’t even need to buy the expansion to have a monstrous lockdown build. I really like the chrono traits but I’m glad they made the other traits competitive enough that its an actual choice and not a requirement. Odd as it sounds, I’m glad Chronomancer doesn’t entirely outshine Mesmer in either shatter or lockdown.

Though… Dat gravity well..

I think you’re severely underestimating just how powerful slow will be on lockdown builds. Constant slows, 15 sec cooldowns on interrupt, and immobilization? Hell yes. Slow makes things more difficult for your opponent, and makes interrupts easier. Dueling is mostly a damage-oriented tree. It’s nice, but by no means mandatory for a post-HoT lockdown build.

Stormbolt.7293:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

The slow trait is an awesome alternative, and I’m fairly certain a chronomancer lockdown build can net more damage, but the tradeoff is steep. You lose either Dom, dueling, or chaos. You can go Dom, Chaos, Chrono for pure lockdown but..

I still think vanilla mesmer will have it on the lockdown front. You won’t even need to buy the expansion to have a monstrous lockdown build. I really like the chrono traits but I’m glad they made the other traits competitive enough that its an actual choice and not a requirement. Odd as it sounds, I’m glad Chronomancer doesn’t entirely outshine Mesmer in either shatter or lockdown.

Though… Dat gravity well..

I think you’re severely underestimating just how powerful slow will be on lockdown builds. Constant slows, 15 sec cooldowns on interrupt, and immobilization? Hell yes. Slow makes things more difficult for your opponent, and makes interrupts easier. Dueling is mostly a damage-oriented tree. It’s nice, but by no means mandatory for a post-HoT lockdown build.

Yeah, Dueling would be the line I drop if I were to pick up Chrono, but If we can’t grab those illusion producing traits, I’m still thinking DE (and clone production in general) will be rather important to remain viable. Less so in WvW, but I’m just not quite sold yet.

Also, dat pistol trait. But more also, AoE blind on shatter is going to be fantastic for lockdown builds. Blind is a strong control condition when it can be rapidly applied.

Not saying I’m not hyped for the Chrono stuff, but Dom/Dueling/Chaos – and more importantly DE- is hell of a contender.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I really like the chrono traits but I’m glad they made the other traits competitive enough that its an actual choice and not a requirement.

Completely agree on this. Chrono is strong and I’ll probably play it for large scale WvW, but the “core builds” are strong as well: power and condi shatter, interrupt and possibly even the PVE “meta” builds (but we don’t know much about HoT PVE yet).

Is mistrust going to be useful in zerg situations? I know you usually just land 1-3 interrupts but that could mean 2-6 stacks of confusion. May not be useful after confusion nerf but you stack whooping 5 conditions with 6/6/6/0/0/0, plus tagging with confusion. With chrono traitline appeared, if you want more CC but less tagging ability you’ll go for 6/0/6/0/0/6, where you add slow instead of confusion.

Weakness, confusion or slow, vulnerability, immobilize, chill/poison/cripple. The most important condition ofc will be immobilize, and hopefully other conditions will prevent immobilize from being cleansed.

Either way, domi + chaos helps us disrupt zerg from the backline. Which can make interruption mesmer having a unique role in the zerg.

Staff, Sword/shield (or sword) with blink, null field, mantra of distraction, well of gravity. Might need someone to cover you with stability but you can get lots of staff CD reduction with this combo.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Is mistrust going to be useful in zerg situations? I know you usually just land 1-3 interrupts but that could mean 2-6 stacks of confusion. May not be useful after confusion nerf but you stack whooping 5 conditions with 6/6/6/0/0/0, plus tagging with confusion. With chrono traitline appeared, if you want more CC but less tagging ability you’ll go for 6/0/6/0/0/6, where you add slow instead of confusion.

Weakness, confusion or slow, vulnerability, immobilize, chill/poison/cripple. The most important condition ofc will be immobilize, and hopefully other conditions will prevent immobilize from being cleansed.

Either way, domi + chaos helps us disrupt zerg from the backline. Which can make interruption mesmer having a unique role in the zerg.

Staff, Sword/shield (or sword) with blink, null field, mantra of distraction, well of gravity. Might need someone to cover you with stability but you can get lots of staff CD reduction with this combo.

I can’t imagine Mistrust not being valuable. Unless the internal cooldown is something crazy large, it feels like we’re just rolling with interrupts. The mantra is always fantastic, plus the Shield wave-of-stun is going to be great, and don’t forget our handy dandy Gravity Well!

I’m really keeping my fingers crossed that interrupts, either condi or boon-oriented, have a solid place in zergs. The big concern I have is the sheer volume of Stability popping up.

I thought there are no ICD for mistrust? If there is then I don’t think there is any point in taking it, even if the ICD is low. If you’ll inflict AoE 2 confusion per cast, you’re only just tagging rather than contributing to the damage.

5s ICD already seriously toned down CS’ maximum effectiveness in zerg, hopefully this isn’t the case with Mistrust.

Anyone with builds that deviate from what chaos said? Come on be brave! Don’t continue to forum stalk!

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I thought there are no ICD for mistrust? If there is then I don’t think there is any point in taking it, even if the ICD is low. If you’ll inflict AoE 2 confusion per cast, you’re only just tagging rather than contributing to the damage.

5s ICD already seriously toned down CS’ maximum effectiveness in zerg, hopefully this isn’t the case with Mistrust.

I’m not sure if there’s an ICD or not. I would LOVE it if there wasn’t, but there are some weird edge cases. Look at Gravity Well, for example. 3 Pulses, easy pulse can pull 5 people. In an ideal world, each pulse interrupts every person for a theoretical max of 15 stacks of confusion, right? That feels pretty hearty! A well-placed Tides of Time could similarly wrack up 5-10 stacks of confusion in a big zerg. Definitely want to try it out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it got a 1s internal cooldown or something.

As for whether the new Chrono traits affect the “best interrupt mesmer spec”… I’m not sure! Maybe dom/dueling/chrono or dom/chaos/chrono would be good options for power-interrupt. Use interrupt to put vuln and slow on your target while gaining Might from BI and quickness from Dom, then deal extra damage for the vuln (domination trait) and extra crit from the slow (Chrono). Could be a really nice “interrupt then unleash hell” build!

What’s great about the traits, and I hope ends up true in practice, is that interrupt/lockdown builds remain strong and have a few different build options. At least for theorycrafting, I’m having a difficult time picking which trees I’d like in my build because there are too many great options.

We can go into inspiration for +1000 healing power on interrupt…..oh wait…..

Actually illusionary inspiration (post CD reduction in the future as I remember someone mentioned it somewhere) + signet of inspiration can make a decent combination with chaotic interruption. But what Chaos suggested is probably the best set up. Domi and chaos traitline is simply too good to ignore for interrupt mesmers

Kelthien.8593:

I’m not sure if there’s an ICD or not. I would LOVE it if there wasn’t, but there are some weird edge cases. Look at Gravity Well, for example. 3 Pulses, easy pulse can pull 5 people. In an ideal world, each pulse interrupts every person for a theoretical max of 15 stacks of confusion, right? That feels pretty hearty! A well-placed Tides of Time could similarly wrack up 5-10 stacks of confusion in a big zerg. Definitely want to try it out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it got a 1s internal cooldown or something.

What’s great about the traits, and I hope ends up true in practice, is that interrupt/lockdown builds remain strong and have a few different build options. At least for theorycrafting, I’m having a difficult time picking which trees I’d like in my build because there are too many great options.

Certainly true, I’m quite excited about having multiple interrupt builds. Currently there are no ICD for Mistrust which makes condirupt build a lot more viable, it’ll hurt both sides if dev decided to add ICD at some point.

For Gravity well and tides of time, this is the sort of the stacks I want to see for those high CD skills though, I hope I’m not too ambitious here. Realistically zerg will cast stability to break out of those, making subsequent pulses less useful. Plus landing an interrupt is a whole different issue with landing CC, so hammer train will probably still be a thing despite it diminishes a bit with pirate ship metas.

Sadrien.3470:

Anyone with builds that deviate from what chaos said? Come on be brave! Don’t continue to forum stalk!

I threw this one together based on some advice from my guildmates

Stormbolt.7293:

Sadrien.3470:

Anyone with builds that deviate from what chaos said? Come on be brave! Don’t continue to forum stalk!

I threw this one together based on some advice from my guildmates

Nice! That’s really similar to one I was thinking of as well. I think the only difference is that I swapped Shattered Concentration for Furious Interruption, though mostly because I tend to run in large-group WvW situations where I trust my own personal damage more than my illusions. As nice as the boon removal is, it’s hard to get it off reliably and I’m a big fan of Quickness.

Yeah I saw that earlier, pretty nice looking spec. I’m considering a confusion/ crit based condition build for roaming right now. Spec would be:

Dueling : iii vi vii
Chaos: iii vi vii
Illusions: i vi vii

Sc/p staff rabid perplexity runes

Blink, decoy, mantra of distraction.

The numbers look totally op. Maybe this is the best interrupt spec let’s have a test eh chaos :p

Sadrien.3470:

Anyone with builds that deviate from what chaos said? Come on be brave! Don’t continue to forum stalk!

I think I will theorycraft a Skcamow build (Yes! that build!) inspired interrupt heavy build.

StickerHappy.8052:

Sadrien.3470:

Anyone with builds that deviate from what chaos said? Come on be brave! Don’t continue to forum stalk!

I think I will theorycraft a Skcamow build (Yes! that build!) inspired interrupt heavy build.

How wonderful!

anyone els think the new chaos line a bit lack lustier compared to other trait lines, i wish they had just move chaotic interruption to another line like dueling or something all the other skill on chaos are kind of kittenty and not really needed for lock down builds.

but i will have to go into it for Ci sucks man

lockdown build with out chaotic interruption, can it be done? Im thinking it can now because of the chronomancer slow on interrupt traits i don’t think this a must take trait anyone considering how bad the rest of that trait line is.

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=“Domination”,1,6,9-“Dueling”,3,6,7-“Chronomancer”,2,6,7

Domination, dueling and chronomancer seam so much better than the crappy chaos line

utility skills: ether feast, mantra of distraction, decoy,Well of Action and Gravity Well seam stupid good for lockdown =P

No, if you are running staff the chaos armor / reduce cds trait is almost as good as ci

I’ve only read the OP, but I’m sure there are some fantastic ideas out there already! I’ll try to get some replies to previous posts when I can. Here’s my idea of the best lockdown build I think we have access to:

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=“Domination”,1,4,9-“Chaos”,3,6,7-“Dueling”,1,4,9

With sword/focus/Staff of course! Blink, MoD and Arcane Thievery. Probably Pack Runes and doom/energy sigils!

I probably best for zerging but i think pistol is much stronger roaming around wvw.

Anyone else? or should I let this thread die :/